The
one-hundred-seventy year history of European settlement in the Irvington area
can be divided into four somewhat equal phases: (1) a pre-town phase, from the
first settlement in 1821 to the town's inception as a planned development in
1870, (2) the era of Irvington as an independent town before annexation by
Indianapolis in 1903, (3) an era of integration into Indianapolis as the larger
city increasingly suburbanized around the smaller town, and (4) the more
current era of challenges, as the tide of suburbanization rolled on and left
Irvington balancing somewhere between inner city and outer suburb.

This
construction, emphasizing the wider context in which the community originated,
thrived, and evolved, provides a useful backdrop for addressing the core issue
of community identity: Like all social organizations, communities are
self-defining, and planned communities are expressly so. Understanding the
extent which Irvington has been successful in the effort to establish and
maintain an identity may also help us understand something about the nature of
the wider community from which it distinguished itself.

The
original white community was defined by the frontier experience in which
longer-term relationships were important in the face of a continuing flood of
newcomers. In 1818 European settlement in central Indiana consisted most
notably of the tiny frontier settlement on the west fork of the Whitewater
River, then growing up around the trading post of John Conner. In that year the
Treaty of St. Mary's guaranteed the opening of most of the two-year-old state
to settlement, to begin in 1822. Nevertheless, as early as 1819 a few brave
settlers began to arrive along the White River West Fork. They followed
the Whitewater Trace, a trail which connected Connersville with White River and
its many Delaware villages, where John's brother William occupied a site even
more isolated from white settlement, later known as Conner Prairie. Apparently
a small group came together in 1820, including John Wilson and John McCormack,
staying near the confluence of White River and its largest tributary, Fall
Creek. A third frontiersman, George Pogue, had occupied a cabin on the low
bluffs over a mile away from the river, along the first stream towards
civilization to the east, probably in 1819. After a bout with malaria in his
first year, Wilson decided to follow Pogue's example and relocated to still
higher ground, some 175 feet above the flood plain and over five miles away
from the river, where the trace crossed the next stream over, named Pleasant
Run by government surveyors. Here, in 1820 he registered eighty acres and built
a more permanent cabin, where present-day Hawthorne Lane crossed the railroad
tracks in Irvington, just southeast of present-day Emerson and Washington
Avenues. (V. T. Cottman, p.145, 149)

As
the few remaining Indians disappeared, settlers streamed into the newly-designated
state capital, most of them passing Wilson's cabin. The trail became known as
the Centerville Road, and Wilson became an innkeeper. The remaining area of
present-day Irvington south of Pleasant Run was patented in 1822 by Joseph
Sandusky, who built a log cabin north of the Centerville Road but south of
present-day Washington Street, near Audubon and the site of the future homes of
Irvington's founders. The Sandusky's, from Kentucky via Ohio, also acquired
other parcels in this part of Indiana.(V. Cottman, p. 146-7; Ind. Woman,
Irvington Edition, p. 1) The state government, after professionally planning
the isolated settlement of Indianapolis, yet while still in Corydon, in 1823
funded ten different road projects into new capital, including two which passed
through the future Irvington area. Efforts in this transportation development
legislation were concentrated on the Brookville Road, which alone received over
eleven percent of the road fund, being the most direct connection to the most
heavily-settled part of the state and Cincinnati, the largest city in the West.
The Centerville Road received less than five percent of those funds, and a
Connersville branch over two percent, with five other roads connecting
Indianapolis in other directions receiving more. (Indiana Senate Journal,
1823-24, p.252, from Thornbrough and Rikker p.309-10) In 1824 the General
Assembly voted to move to the new capital the following year.(Blomquist, EI,
p86)

Wilson
soon acquired other land-owning neighbors around his property, and several
other parcels were taken along Brookville Road and Lick Creek on the south and
east edges of the parcels of future Irvington. Along this road, by
present-day Arlington Avenue, was Edward Heizer, who served two terms as township
assessor in the early 1830's.(Sulgrove, p.614-5) This is also where a tollbooth
was located. (Korra p30). In the next mile or so out Brookville Road, where it
crosses Lick Creek , were several more early farms, including that of Henry
Brady, who arrived in 1823, established an inn the next year, was a
surveyor of the Michigan Road in 1825, opened the first school in the area in
1826, was the Justice of the Peace from 1828 to 1833, and was in and out
of the General Assembly from 1831 to 1852. Beside Brady in 1830 was the
property of Joseph Clinton, Justice of the Peace 1842 to 1852. Up the
Brookville Road towards Indianapolis, and less than a half-mile almost due
south of Wilson's cabin, lived Elias H. and Mahalia Shimer, who arrived from
Zanesville, Ohio in 1827, who also served as Justice of the Peace for fourteen
years off and on between 1832 and 1857, who was twice township assessor between
1834 and 1841, and who built the second oldest surviving house in the area
around 1833, to be seen at 4905 Brookville Road. Further down the pike from
Brady between 1833 and 1844 was the inn of Nathan Harlan, who had arrived in
1827. (Sulgrove p.613, 618-9; Korra, 1991 p12-22) This activity suggests
a pattern of early general recognition of the importance of the transportation
routes to the area, and a clustering of pioneer activity into a loose rural
neighborhood, with inns spaced along the routes favored by travelers. This
district also had the first school in the area, south of Brookville Road near
Kitley, around 1827. (Muncie, Stories, p44)

In
1825 Congress agreed to locate the National Road (Washington St.) through
Indianapolis. (Leary p17, Rikker p309-10) By 1827 the National Road was
surveyed to connect with Washington Street, the main street of Indianapolis,
and thus passed through the Sandusky and Wilson property a
quarter-mile north of Wilson's inn. Indianapolis had grown to more the seven
hundred, and by 1830, around 1900, (Rikker p312-3) but the outlying areas were
sparsely settled. Although apparently incomplete, the 1829 property assessment
for the new Warren Township lists only twenty-five land owners, all but three
of which held only eighty acres. The same assessment list recorded 65
non-payers, indicating a high proportion of tenant farmers, squatters, and
laborers among the settlers. The 1830 Census lists 94 heads of households in
Warren Township, or almost two per square mile.

Near
the eastern edge of the county, further down the Centerville Road, was the inn
of Samuel Fullen. After the announcement of the National Road route in 1830, he
hired Brady to lay out the town of Cumberland along the government survey route
in 1831, and moved his establishment there. Fullen married George Pogue's
daughter, Ann, whose mother in that same year sold the Pogue farm, now bordered
by the national road route and the extension of Washington Street. The buyer
was none other than Noah Noble, who was also elected governor that same year as
perhaps the state's leading promoter of transportation development. (L. Hulse,
EI, p133)

When
that first national turnpike was cut through eastern Indiana in 1834, Wilson
also relocated there, building an impressive ten-room two-story brick inn from
materials manufactured on site. This inn, over-looking Pleasant Run at the
present-day southeast corner of Emerson Avenue, became a stagecoach stop and
landmark, remaining into the 1890's. At least two other 'taverns' were spaced
between this point and Cumberland, far enough from Indianapolis to become a
more significant commercial center and the site of several early mills. Rufus
Jennison had a tavern near present-day Shadeland, probably near brother Samuel
Jennison's parcel, where Eastgate Shopping Center is today. As early as 1825, a
little further out was the inn of James Ferguson on whose land a school-house
was built in 1827. Ferguson also has the distinction, along with George Pogue's
son John and others, of being one of the founders of the first church in the
area, Pleasant Run or "Old-School " Baptist, organized in 1832 and
joined by the Shimers in 1834. Wilson's son-in-law Aquilla Parker
succeeded him at his death in 1840 and maintained their inn during the heyday
of wagon travel. (Sulgrove p618, 620, 622-3) Other early surviving homes
in the area date from this period, including the Askren House (c.1833), near
16th Street and Pleasant Run, the Moore-Christian House (1841) at 4200
Brookville Road, and the Wallace-Bosart house (1841?) west of Wilson's Inn.
(Diebold ms.)

These
first immigrants were a loose community based on common economic situation and
similar frontier experience. Their accounts for the most part touch on common
themes: when they arrived and where from, contact with Indians if any, where
and when they built their homes. Yet the stories also reflect the individuality
of their separate origins and situations in the community. Accordingly, their
institutions were few and loosely organized. For example, the first church
congregation in the area met beginning in 1827 in the homes of the members, led
by Methodist circuit preachers. They organized themselves in 1832 as the Bethel
United Methodist Church, but were still without a regular meeting house until a
cabin was donated in 1838, apparently along Pleasant Run east of present-day
Arlington Avenue. (Korra p77-8) Also dating from this era was the
National Horse Thief Detective Association Company #33, a sort of
nineteenth-century rural neighborhood crime watch, which aimed not only at
prevention but also apprehension and the execution of justice. (Korra
p47) Another subscription school was started in 1846, being located east
of the inn, but it lasted only about six years, going through five teachers in
the process. The cause was thereafter taken up by the Methodists on Pleasant
Run. (Muncie, Stories, p45)

Indianapolis,
with 2700 in 1840, tripled in population by 1850 to over 8000 people, a far
faster rate than the stateís 44 percent growth rate. A large portion of
the immigrants and the goods to meet their needs came past the Wilson/Parker
Inn. Nevertheless, the overall population growth was predominantly rural,
Indianapolis absorbing only 2.6% of the state's growth. By 1850 the population
of Warren Township had passed 1700, or a density of over 35 persons per square
mile. As the countryside filled in, the local establishments also settled in as
neighborhood centers. In 1848, for example, Aquilla Parker was granted one of
the township's first liquor licenses. (Muncie, Irvington Stories, p.3) The
little Methodist congregation, called Bethel Church, doubled to 160 members
during a revival in 1850. (Korra p78). Throughout this early period, these
"turnpike founders" along the National Road and the Brookville Road,
in the central part of the township, were a dominant aspect of the local leadership.
Up to 1850 Justices of the Peace were drawn from the above mentioned group 52%
of the time and assessors were drawn from this group 50% of the time. (Sulgrove
p613-4)

In
the 1850s, however, another transportation development brought another shift in
the direction of growth in the area. A rail line between Indianapolis and the
Cincinnati area by way of Brookville, to be called the Harrison and
Indianapolis, had been sanctioned by the state along with the first spate of
eight railroad charters granted in February 1832. This plan did not materialize
until 1846, when the progress of the Madison and Indianapolis line filled the
booming capital city with railroad fever, and several more lines were
initiated. Chartered in 1846 as the Terre Haute and Richmond, the company
made some progress on the roadbed east of Indianapolis in 1850, but
concentrated on its Terre Haute leg, selling off the eastern leg to the Indiana
Central Railway Company in 1851. Tracks reached Richmond in October, 1853 and
the state line December 8, using the old abandoned roadbed of the Centerville
Road, now superseded by the National Road. Begun as the Ohio and Indiana around
1850, a second line was also constructed through the area in 1853, following
just north of the Brookville Road, still in use as the B. & O. line.
(Dunn p143,152; Muncie, Stories, p22-4)

In
spite of these improvements, the area retained its isolated, farm
character for another generation. Although the new railroads were supporting a
commercial and population boom in Indianapolis, Washington Street frontage was
yet platted only a mile east of Meridian in the 1850s, leaving four rural miles
between the city and the Parker Inn. The nearest post offices to the
pre-Irvington area were Lawrence, Cumberland, and Indianapolis as late as 1858.
(McEvoy's)

The
Sandusky land had been worked by various tenant farmers. One of these, Joseph
Pouder, built a cabin east of the inn on the south side of the National Road
just west of what was to become Ritter Avenue. In 1853 his brother-in-law, John
Ellenberger, brought his family over the National Road from Cincinnati and
replaced Pouder, who moved on west. (Muncie, Stories, p.4) In 1858 Ellenberger
bought the northern 180 acres of the Sandusky property on the north side of
Pleasant Run, extending north to Eleventh Street, and in 1865 built a new home
at what is now 5602 E. 10th Street.(Diebold, ch. 2) The southern Sandusky
parcels were then operated as a dairy. (V. Cottman, p.146-7)

During
this decade, Indianapolis again more than doubled to over 18,000, but the state
as a whole was experiencing the largest raw increase of any decade in its
history, 862,000 or 2.8 times the increase of the previous decade. On the other
hand, Indianapolis' increase, though still booming, was only 1.3 times the
previous decade, or only 1.2% of the state's total gain, again reflecting the
predominantly rural character of the growth. As new residents filled the
township and the railroads began to knit the countryside to the world outside,
strains were bound to emerge. For example, efforts were made around 1859 to
stop the Horse Thief Detective Association because of its vigilante activities,
but it was deemed sufficiently important by its members to resist these
efforts. (Korra p47)

The
retention of the majority of the land that was to be Irvington in two large
parcels, when most parcels were only eighty acres, may have preserved the
sizable underdeveloped area for the next phase of development, a full-blown
town and property development scheme. By 1870 Indianapolis had grown to more
than 48,000 and Center Township, with another 4300 outside the city, held 73%
of the county population. Warren Township, like the rest of the county,
remained very rural, with only 2300, or 47 per square mile, only barely
catching the state average, which had actually declined because of the Civil
War. This rate, about six persons per eighty acre parcel, indicates a fairly
full settlement for the township and the state. Indianapolis, however, actually
grew more in the Civil War decade than it had in the previous, first railroad
decade, again increasing to 2.6 times its 1860 size. This means that, even
assuming no departures (and research for other areas indicates that the
turnover was probably high), only one person in three had been in the city for
more than ten years, less than one in six for twenty years, and one in for
seventeen thirty years.

Cumberland,
however, had become the largest secondary center in the county, with almost
three hundred inhabitants, having benefited from the National Road, a railroad
stop, and its eastward orientation. Warren Township as a whole had grown only
32% in twenty years, suggesting that growth had slowed once most desirable
agricultural land was taken. Consequently, the first generation of settlers and
their descendants remained in the majority. In this era of immigration,
Indianapolis had grown to over 22% of foreign birth, but Warren Township had by
far the highest concentration of foreigners of the other townships at almost
16%, and these were actually somewhat more concentrated in the
countryside than in Cumberland. (Compendium of the Ninth Census,
p.172) Perhaps this indicates the township had closer ties to
Cincinnati or Pennsylvania than other rural parts of the county. As the
countryside filled in more completely, country roads were developed, and rail
transport whisked people and freight through the township, the importance of
the earlier turnpike leadership was mitigated-- in the fifties and sixties they
were Justices of the Peace only 23% of the time and assessors not at all.

Indianapolis'
remarkable growth as a railroad city led to a rail-oriented, warehousing,
manufacturing, and commercial district on its south and eastern sides. In ten
years of manufacturing growth the number of workers was ten times larger, the
amount of capital invested twelve times larger, and the output eighteen times
greater, implying also large increases in productivity, since output increased
so much more than labor and capital. Lumber was more readily available, with
pine being imported at the rate of four or five thousand carloads per year,
primarily to support the housing market. (W.R. Holloway, Indianapolis,
p366-7,382). In 1864 the city chartered a street railway company for mule-drawn
cars on tracks. This company was bought the next year by E.S.Alvord and W.H.
English, the latter being the founded of the First National Bank, these two,
along with Stroughton Fletcher and Noah Noble's heirs, became the largest
developers on the east side. This developing area had a striking ethnic
character, becoming known as Germantown. This growth meant that or the rural
areas, the winds of suburbanization were beginning to blow. Comparing Marion
County assessments between 1869 and 1875, town lots grew in value at over three
times the rate of land in general, and town improvements almost eight times
land improvements, while the number of taxpayers only doubled. (First Annual
Report p353)

Halfway
between Indianapolis and Cumberland and spanning the two major turnpikes and
two major rail lines, the Irvington area was well situated to be a new
secondary center. Transportation developments to the east led
indirectly to the founding of Irvington, but its impetus was residential
development rather than commercial. Centerville had been the seat of Wayne
County, but intersecting rail lines, along with the National Road had assured
Richmond's ascendancy. With overwhelming economic forces against them in their
home territory, two prominent Centerville citizens, Jacob B. Julian (1815-98)
and Sylvester Johnson, decided to direct their investments elsewhere.
Julian was an attorney, president of the First National Bank of
Centerville, and had been a two-term legislator in the late forties. His brother,
George W.(1817-99), served in Congress and ran under the Free Soil banner for
Vice President in 1852 under John P. Hale. As a Republican founder, along with
Oliver P. Morton (1823-77), another Centerville lawyer and anti-slavery man,
George Julian in 1860 began five more terms in Congress.(M. Hipskind, EI p856)
Sylvester Johnson was Wayne County auditor, head of the Indiana Horticultural
Society, and on the board of directors of Purdue University.

They
were informed about the Sandusky land through Rev. T. A. Goodwin, a Methodist
pastor who lived about halfway toward Indianapolis and sold real estate.
Goodwin and the Julians no doubt had known each other politically, since
Goodwin had edited in Indianapolis from 1857 to 1862 an anti-slavery,
anti-liquor weekly called Indiana American, which had moved from Brookville,
and was also Recording Secretary of The State Temperance Alliance. (History of
Warren Township p65; Diebold, ch. 3; A. Colbert and D.Vanderstel, EI, p96;
Holloway p255) Julian no doubt had seen the area when passing
through by horse as a legislator. Julian and Johnson purchased from Joseph
Sandusky's heirs the remaining 320 acres not owned by Ellenberger at $100 an
acre on June 30, 1870 (Muncie, Stories, p4). Dr. Levi Ritter, attorney,
physician, and surveyor from Danville, Indiana had in 1869 purchased the Pouder
half quarter section, and another 'land company' got the Parkerís' eighty
acres. (V. Cottman, p148; Diebold, Ch. 3)

On
November 7, 1870, Julian and Johnson platted a 304 acre town of 108 lots on
this purchase, applying the name in honor of Washington Irvington, at the
suggestion of Julian's daughter, Mary Downey. Johnson modeled the design
after Glendale, Ohio, laid out in 1855 on high ground on the Cincinnati,
Hamilton, and Dayton rail line north of Cincinnati, one of the first few of
such suburban communities in the country and near where Mary had attended
Wesleyan Female College in the late fifties. Like Glendale, Irvington was to
have lanes winding along the natural contours, laid out from a central
avenue. With the assistance of Wayne County's professionally trained
surveyor, Robert A. Howard, the two developers apparently also curved at least
one street around a particularly "magnificent" oak. (V. Cottman p.150;
Diebold ch. 3) These lanes intentionally followed the lay of the lower ground,
leaving the higher ground for building sites. (Johnson, IMH, June, 1908, p88)
Irvington's plan was more formal than Glendale's, however. A central
north-south meridian street connected the two turnpikes and the two rail lines
like a pin, with the National Road and its companion rail line bracketed by the
circles like jewels on the pin. With a density of 2.8 acres per lot when most
town developments were supplying about five lots per acre, Irvington was
definitely elitist in its aspirations.

Following
the example of Colorado Springs, the development also used deed restrictions to
prohibit liquor, the manufacture of soap, and slaughter houses, along with a
fifty foot setback for "any stable, hog-pen, privy, or other offensive
building, stall, or shed." (Sulgrove p621) These covenants not only
established landmark precedents in deed restrictions, they reflected a
self-conscious program for collective community-building. (Diebold; Sehr)

Dr.
Ritter joined the development scheme on September 6, 1871, by filing an
addition on his 80 acres on the west side of the Julian-Johnson plat, adopting
both the restrictive covenants and the curvilinear street pattern. The developers
began construction of their own Second Empire homes that fall, Julian and
Johnson choosing lots adjoining the National Road, but building facing
each other across the central drive, like "ceremonial gateposts" for
the development, replacing the homestead that had begun with the Sandusky
cabin, and thereby fulfilling an agreement among the principals to reside
in the new community. Their probable architect, Isaac Taylor, was also active
in Republican politics, founding the Tippecanoe Club in 1876 and serving as its
president. (Diebold ch.3; Ind. Woman p1)

On
January 4, 1872, James E. Downey, Julian's son-in-law, and Nicholas Ohmer filed
another addition, and they too built new homes, although Ohmer never lived in
his. John W. Chambers added 250 lots on the north side of the first plat,
retaining the winding streets but moving much closer to conventional lot
sizes. The new development was supported by the Panhandle Railroad,
operating on the old Indiana Central line, by the building of a depot in
that same year. In 1873 Downey acquired and platted another eighty acres, from
the Shimers on the west side of Emerson(Sulgrove, p; Diebold )

This
group was somewhat successful in their efforts to market the property, for on
March 11, 1873 a total of 82 signers petitioned to the Board of County
Commissioners for incorporation. The resulting plebiscite on March 21 was
nearly unanimous for the proposition, and officers were elected April 3. Julian
and Ritter were two of the three trustees. The third was Charles W. Brouse, a
Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for actions at Missionary Ridge, who was
apparently involved with the Downey platting the same year. Johnson was
made treasurer and assessor. This newly legitimized regime met immediately on
April 7 and aggressively passed ordinances to require owners to grade their
sidewalks, plant trees, and keep their livestock confined, while prohibiting
the use of fire-arms and the killing of birds. (Dunn p.435, W. Sanford, EI
p.470; Diebold) In this year Julian's brother George, now retired from
Congress, joined the new neighborhood with a home at 115 South Audubon. (M.
Wright EI p445). School bonds were authorized by the trustees in November, and
supplemented the following April, for completion of an "ambitious" three-story
brick school building on the south circle. (Dunn p435; Sulgrove) Roads
continued to be graded and graveled and maples planted lining them. (V. Cottman
p151)

The
development of Irvington may also be placed in the context of the wider
landscape design movement to beautify residential areas. Following eastern
trends, Indianapolis had begun this process as a public endeavor with the 1864
purchase of the land for Crown Hill Cemetery. Frederick Law Olmstead and
Calvert Vaux had just planned Riverside, Illinois in 1869. Following close on
the heels of Irvington's success was Woodruff Place, platted in 1872-73. (C.
Ziegler, EI p.894). Irvington's plan also incorporated a park in the middle of
the south circle, four years before Indianapolis acquired its first, Garfield
Park. (Diebold, ch. 3)

Complementing
this intellectual approach to development was their support of liberal
education. Not only was public education given a priority, but higher education
as well. The original plat of the town provided for a female college in
the north circle. George Julian was known as a pro-suffrage Congressman, and
women's rights activity had increased in Indianapolis in the wake of the war.
(C. Ziegler, EI p1446-7). Such sentiments perhaps helped influence the
decision of Northwest Christian University to relocate to Irvington. Ovid
Butler, the founder, primary benefactor, and president for the first twenty
years, of what was the second or third coeducational college in America and the
crown jewel of the Disciples of Christ denomination, was also a successful
developer of the Old Northside, and prominent Republican publisher. His college
also broke new ground by creating in 1869, with his personal endowment, the
first chair in the country designed specifically for a woman, in literature.
Appointed to it was Catherine Merrill, who thereby became the second female
professor in the country. Her father was Samuel Merrill, former state
treasurer, Indianapolis founder, state bank president, president of the Madison
and Indianapolis, and publisher. Catherine had just published a
two-volume history of Indiana's participation in the war, commissioned by
Governor Morton, thus solidifying her literary and Republican credentials. (A.
Colbert EI p992; C. Ziegler, p370-1; D. Sobol, p992)

While
Irvington was busy forming a local government in the spring of 1873, the
directors of Northwestern Christian University were deciding to move, because
they had already outgrown their eighteen-year-old building and because
surrounding land prices had risen so high. The college had suitors in
addition to Irvington, including another brand new suburban town, Brightwood.
That town's developers were involved in manufacturing and mercantile interests,
and many of the lots were sold to their employees and those of the adjoining
Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad. (Sehr,
p310-3) The college and Irvington both were institutions which projected
a high moral tone in an era when temperance and suffrage were often allied
issues. Both the college and the town rejected the old agricultural environment
and the new urban commercial/industrial environments alike. Greek Professor
John O. Hopkins had been one of the new town's first residents, opposite the
north circle, which the developers had proposed as a site for a college, and
his wife was already teaching students in their home in 1871. (Muncie, Stories,
p47) The moral, intellectual, and political affinities of the two institutions
were cemented by the town's donation of 25 acres and $150,000 for buildings,
quite a sum at that time. A three-story brick building with steam heat
was completed for fall classes in 1875. (Dunn p435)

This
generous subsidization of the college is all the more poignant since it came in
the context of the Panic of that same year, with resulting dislocations and
capital shortages. Whereas in 1872 the new development was selling lots for the
exorbitant sum of $1000 per acre, prices soon declined, and the developers
began subdividing the large lots to broaden their market. Julian and Johnson
multiplied 42 unsold lots south of the railroad into 182 lots the year of the
Panic. (Sehr, p316) Apparently sales were slack relative to the cost of
development commitments. Julian, already participating in the development
more actively by building homes for new residents, was hit particularly hard.
Hopes were placed on the connection to Indianapolis by streetcar. Johnson
invested heavily here, and the community began receiving hourly departures in
conjunction with the opening of the college. (Sehr p309 Note B)) Even
though the university's arrival brought high occupancy rates in 1875, "the
early capitalists kept up their high hopes and also high prices until these
last great features to the town had been realized, then wealth and prosperity
still failing to materialize, many of them left town for other places, where
they had hopes of retrieving their lost fortunes. It has been many times
asserted that every investor of that day came out a financial wreck." (V.
Cottman p151)

In
spite of these difficulties, the task of community-building continued full
force, and by 1876 the population was reported above 200. (Muncie, Stories,
p36) On September 19, 1875, in conjunction with the commencement of fall
classes, Hopkins began conducting church services in the new university
building. The organization of the First Church of Christ in Irvington, later to
become the Downey Avenue Christian, came two months later. This congregation
was more or less as an extension of the college, meeting there, with President
O.A. Burgess as one of the first five elders, and Hopkins, Burgess and
successive presidents as frequent speakers. (George E. Owen, A Century of
Witness, p11-2). The Disciples of Christ denomination had been experiencing
substantial growth in the Indianapolis area, which may have also contributed to
Butler's move. When the college was begun in 1855, there had been only one
congregation in the city. The college's growth led to the organization in 1868
of the Third Christian Church on the old Northside, and by the mid 1870's, when
the Irvington church was begun, there were six Indianapolis congregations, with
almost two thousand members in affiliation, along with several non-affiliated,
splinter congregations. (EI p416)

Not
all community building was so directly an extension of the college. In the same
year, an Irvington chapter of the Oddfellows was instituted, its membership
dominated by the names of earlier area families: Parker, Wilson, Heizer,
Askren, and Wells. In 1867 the one-room log school house that had been Bethel
Methodist was torn down and replaced by a new frame structure with a
playground. It received the new Irvington older students until Hopkins' school
was built. In 1877 Sally Askren was instrumental in revitalization of the
Bethel Methodist, which had declined during the Civil War era, during which the
building was used by the home guard. She reportedly was concerned about the
youth of the community, the availability of liquor and other temptations of
nearby commercial centers, and grocer and school board member Shank donated a
lot to support the project. (Muncie, Stories, p45-7) These themes resonated
with the reform-minded religious newcomers in Irvington, and she was assisted in
her efforts by Mrs. L.O. Robinson, an evangelist residing in the new town who
spoke at the reopening of the building in 1878, and James Downey, who became
Sunday School Superintendent. (Sulgrove p621-2; V. Cottman p152; Korra p79)

As
summarized by one contemporary observer, Irvington was "fortunate"
for being a "college town,... for the college life not only helped it
weather the financial stress of the seventies, but it gave it an intellectual
atmosphere that has made the place an attractive residence." (Dunn p435)
The students not only boarded with the residents, they attended their churches
and taught the Sunday School classes. The residents supported the college's
literary societies and attended commencement activities. (V. Cottman, p152-3)
It is possible, however, that these sentiments were not so widely shared
outside the cultural setting of the new town proper.

Jacob
Julian, now near bankruptcy, was already sufficiently well known in the capital
to be made judge of the Marion County circuit court in 1876. He sold his new
Irvington mansion, ironically in the same year that it was featured in an atlas
of the state. Following a two-year tenure, Julian stayed in the city to
support his legal career, leaving behind his financial embarrassments and the
diluted results of his Utopian vision. His career move to the city
poignantly underlines the relative isolation of his development project from
the broader opportunities of the era. (Taylor, et al p98, Sehr p.309; Diebold
ch.3).

Another
sign of stress in the new community's leadership at this time was the 1877
battle by rival school boards for legitimacy over the firing of a teacher, with
George Julian and Hopkins opposing Sylvester Johnson and Dr. Jacob A. Krumrine,
the town's first druggist. Hopkins resigned and was replaced by William H.H.
Shank, a local grocer. Shank sided with Johnson and Krumrine, and this
threesome forcibly ejected the resistant teacher and were rewarded with two
convictions, two fines, and a lost appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court. (Dunn
p435; C. Ziegler EI p832-3; Owen p13; Sulgrove p621) It is interesting to note
not only the rift in the original founding group, but also the appearance of
mercantile interests in local politics.

The
1880 Census lists Irvington with 652 residents, a close second to Brightwood
and contributing a large portion of the township's increase of 816 persons.
Whether or not a financial success, Irvington was a population success. Warren
Township thus increased 36% in the 1870's, behind Center and Wayne Townships,
even though the statewide increase was less than 18%. Irvington's relative
success in self-conscious community-building indicates that the founders'
vision stuck a resonant chord in a culture being apportioned between urban and
rural communities. Indianapolis, however, had increased 56% and Wayne Township
more than doubled. In spite of Irvington's illustrious beginnings and relative
success, the primary thrust of suburbanization was working class and westward
from Indianapolis. Once again the liberal planners were beset by economic
forces beyond their control.

Irvington
was not emerging as quite the elitist Utopian community its founders might have
liked. The occupations of the 171 Irvington males over 16 in 1880 show a
significant number of professional and business men, 22%, but also an even
larger number of unskilled workers, 27%, with skilled workers next at 12%.
There were even 13 men in the town who listed farming as their primary
occupation. (Sehr, p328)

In
addition, the Irvington newcomers, in spite of their numbers, were a minority
in their own territory, whatever their occupation, still only 21% of a township
which remained an agricultural community. Supported by great access to external
markets and high local demand by the needs of the city, Marion County was
one of the leading agricultural counties in the state. In 1879 Marion County
actually led all counties in the number of horses, was only third in the number
of hogs, fourth in bushels of potatoes, sixth in acres of corn, seventh in
bushels of barley, ninth in tons of hay, and eleventh in numbers of mules and
acres of meadow, falling behind in wheat and cattle, which would utilized too
much valuable land. (Ind. Statistics Bureau, First Annual Report of the Department
of Statistics and Geology, 1880) Irvington also did not share the township's
ethnic emphasis, being 89% native born, as compared to the rest of the
non-urban county being only 84% native born. Interestingly, Irvington had more
blacks than foreigners, although of course employed as servants and laborers.
(Sehr, p330)

As
the sale of smaller lots combined with a growing local demand for labor and
services, cultural and class divisions arose within the town itself. The
community was too small and too isolated to separate the classes into distinct,
discretely separate neighborhoods. Social and economic divisions were
manifested by a series of controversial measures which struggled with the
keeping of animals and the protection of the horticulture. (See esp. G.
Cottman, "A Hoosier Arcadia," IMH V.28)

Since
Butler University and Irvington drew from the same cultural well, there was not
the overt town/gown schism found in other college towns, but there may have
been town/country and elite/non-elite ones. In addition to the economic
differences there were bound to be cultural ones as well. For one thing,
Butler's denomination became Irvington's, but represented only 5% of Marion
County's faithful. The Methodists, representing the state's most numerous
denomination, while supported by a few Irvingtonites, were nevertheless
relegated to a small frame building on the outskirts of town. In addition, just
the presence of Butler, as the only college near Indianapolis, set the town
apart. Butler's eleven faculty members, for example, averaged $103 wages per
month with a 1 to 12 teacher student ratio, whereas other county teachers
averaged only $44 per month with a 1 to 35 ratio.

In
spite of their cultural distance from the rural community around them, or
perhaps because of it, the leadership of the new college town continued to
solidify and extended their community and its reputation. The college continued
to bring in distinguished residents whose families became leading lights of the
church and the community. Consider, for example, D.C. and H.U. Brown,
Indianapolis residents who came to Irvington as students, graduating in 1879
and 1880, respectively, and receiving M.A.s in 1880 and 1882. D.C. Brown, after
joining the church in 1881, studied in Germany , returned as professor of
Greek, and went on to be State Librarian for 20 years and President of the
National Association of State Libraries. H.U. Brown went to work for the
Indianapolis News in 1881, became Butler's youngest board member in 1885, and remained
with both organizations for over seventy years, rising to managing editor and
Vice President of Indianapolis Newspapers Inc. He was also president of
Butler's board for 52 years, as well as president of the Irvington town council
and school board and an elder at Downey Avenue Christian. Allen R.
Benton, who had already been President of the college 1861-68, returned to
teach after a five-year term as University of Nebraska's first chancellor,
serving again as President 1886-91. He also was a member and frequent speaker
at the church and bought Ohmer's house in 1890. Thomas Carr Howe also joined
the church as a student in 1884 and returned to teach, after earning degrees
from the University of Berlin and Harvard, serving as the college's president
from 1908 to 1920, as well as President of the Church Federation of
Indianapolis and the Disciples of Christ Pension Fund. His younger brother,
Will David, became a church member at fourteen and a Professor of English from
1899 to 1906, going on to a distinguished career as a publisher and editor with
Harcourt, Brace and Charles Scribner's Sons. (A Century p40-1; EI, various)

The
founders' families also provided a second generation of community
leadership. We have seen that Jacob Julian's son-in-law, James Downey, actively
participated in the property development and helped build the Methodist
congregation. Sylvester Johnson's son, Eudorus, built his own house at 5631
University in 1876, but relocated to north Meridian in the mid 1880s, following
in his father's public accounting footsteps by serving as Marion County Auditor
for many years. (Diebold, Ch. 4) George Julian, after publishing his Political
Recollections in 1884 at age 67, left the following year to become surveyor
general of New Mexico, taking as his deputy Indianapolis attorney Charles B.
Clarke, who had been his Congressional secretary. Julian's daughter, Grace,
after receiving Butler degrees in 1884 and 1885, married Clarke in 1887,
and went on to a notable career as an columnist for The Indianapolis Star, an
author, suffragist, and clubwoman of national stature. (M. Hopskind EI p856; M.
Wright, p445-6) In this category one might also include Ovid Butler's son Scot
(c.1844-1931), returned from studies in Heidelburg, joined the church in 1883 and
went on to serve as president of Butler and started a local literary society,
the Irvington Atheneum. Scot Butler's brother Chauncey, another college
trustee, also built an Irvington home.

Another
indication of the solidification of the community in its second decade was a
growing commercial development and the influx of some prominent
merchants. As observed in 1884, "The town has a telegraph-office
(Western Union), and a telephone-station connecting it with all parts of the
state.. a post-office, an Odd-Fellows' Lodge, one general drygoods store, one
drug-store, a wagon-shop, a meat-store, and a blacksmith-shop." (Sulgrove
p622) In the mid 1880s a large three-story brick commercial building named
Moore's Hall was built, where the central avenue crossed the railroad. It
housed a grocery and drug store at street level, and offices and meeting hall
above. (Muncie, Stories, p30) In 1887 the old Julian home was bought by James
T. Layman, an Indianapolis wholesaler who had served on the City Common
Council and Board of Aldermen 1877-84 and as president of the latter body
1881-3. (Diebold, Ch. 4; Dunn, p640-1).

Piece
by piece, however, Indianapolis was reaching out and drawing the unique
community in. This was partially a consequence of growing numbers-- in the
1880s Indianapolis' growth matched the thirty thousand increase of the 1860s.
The city thus grew forty percent in the decade while the state grew only eleven
percent, and became over twice the size of the second largest city, Evansville.
In the 1890s, however, Indianapolis grew almost 64,000, or over sixty percent,
while the state as a whole grew only fifteen percent. Indianapolis was now
absorbing almost twenty percent of the state's growth and was starting to
overflow Center Township. In 1880, 7.5% of Center Township's population was
outside the city; by 1900 the city exceeded the township. In fact, over the
twenty year period, Indianapolis had absorbed 99.6% of the county's growth.

Suburbanization
was felt unevenly in the surrounding townships, however. Warren Township was
beginning to feel its effects, increasing over 800 persons or 35% for the
twenty years. Warren was nevertheless a poor second to Wayne Township, which
more than doubled in the same period and was now over three times as large.
Warren Township's more moderate growth is nevertheless significant, considering
that four townships actually lost population. Looking at housing development on
the east side, although the Highland Park and Fountain Square neighborhoods were
being built up rapidly, the infill was mostly west of State Street, except for
some spotty residential growth and combined commercial and residential
extension along the transportation corridors of Tenth Street, Washington
Street, English Avenue, and Prospect Street. Irvington continued to grow, with
real estate sales were brisk enough for C.W. Brouse, Irvington's original
trustee and a long-time school board president, to open a real estate office in
1890. For the next few years Brouse dominated both the local real estate market
and the efforts to promote improvements. (Ind. Woman, p3)

Even
though the city was step-by-step spreading out toward the town, the more
significant factors for Irvington in this era were the local improvements which
attracted new growth. As awkward and unreliable as the mule-cars seemed in
retrospect, they nevertheless facilitated more regular commuting. Being at the
end of a long line, Irvington suffered the full brunt of the system's
limitations, chiefly its overcrowding and meandering route through the
southeast side. Nevertheless, at least some Butler students apparently commuted
often, but horseback and carriage were probably still the preferred means for
those with the means and who chose not to adapt to the spaced schedules of the
trains. (G. Cottman, A Hoosier Arcadia) In 1893 Washington Street line was
added, pulled first by mules, briefly by a steam engine, but soon by
electricity, which gradually provided more reliable transportation.

Electricity
also became available for consumer use in the 1890s, with the activist town
board providing a $10,000 subsidy for a line down Washington, and leading the
town to vote for its own power station. (Dunn p435-6) In 1893 natural gas was
also brought to the town, via Brightwood, the town providing a $20,000 ante for
the gas company. Brouse, chairman of the improvements committee of a
strong Commercial Club, personally led the subscription drives for both of
these endeavors. (Ind. Woman, p2-3,8)

Butler
had grown apace with the town, having added a number of buildings, including a
dormitory in 1885, a women's building, a gym, and an observatory. The Board of
Trustees and officers had a number of long-time Irvington residents, including
the Butler brothers, H.U. Brown and A.R. Benton and others. These were
balanced, however, by a strong contingent of city residents, as well as
one third from other towns around the state. The college had over 200 hundred
students for its 21 faculty members, and its college preparatory section was
providing secondary education for the town. H.U. Brown was even president of
the town board and his support of internal improvements would naturally
benefit the college as well. (Ind. Woman, p4-5,7)

As
the demand for improvements increased, the old town split over the grazing of
animals evolved into pro- and anti-development factions. With a population of
over 800 and commuter transportation, the town was losing some of its
rural-town atmosphere. Measures had always been directed not only at wandering
animals in the town per se, but herds of grazing stock at the towns fringes.
William H. H. Shank, long time grocer and school board trustee, at one time had
several hundred sheep in the Arlington area. In the 1890s, however, measures
shifted in favor of stricter control, for example, toward chickens, a mainstay
of rural residential life. Butchering shops on Washington Street, which
slaughtered onsite, providing meat locally and to the Indianapolis city market,
were a target of public concern, even though located at the eastern edge of
town. Again the situation was complicated because Shank was one of the
offending parties. (Muncie, Stories, p36-40)

It
was the transportation changes that would again prove critical for the
development of the area. As late as the mid 1890s development was still focused
on the railroad and Central Avenue (now Audubon), for example, the construction
of the two-story brick Palace Drug Store building across from Moore's
Hall. (Muncie, Stories, p30-33). Those who sought improvements had
a long list, borrowed from the nearby city which they increasingly saw
themselves associated with: paved streets and sidewalks, street lighting, and
public water. With its new streetcars, the growth of Washington Street, was
both as a developing corridor uniting the long-isolated town with the city and
as the local commercial district. Paving the thoroughfare was finally achieved
in 1897, although only the western half of town was at first included, and even
this had long and vociferous opposition, to the point of the use of injunctions
as delaying tactics, even though it would lead to improved streetcar service.
(G. Cottman, p111; Ind. Woman p2)

It
was the issue of water, however, the raised the most emotion, proved to be the
Waterloo for those resisting development, and brought Irvington prematurely
under the administrative control of the city. The importance of water supply
for fire protection was illustrated with every building that burned, such the
dramatic 1898 destruction of the 1874 school building, which had recently added
four new rooms to accommodate the growth in population. City water meant city
annexation, however, and the new school building, promptly opened the next year
on Central Avenue, south of the southern circle, remained under threat of fire.
The city toyed with the pumping of water from Pleasant Run, but this
alternative was dismissed as unsuitable for drinking and expensive for fire
protection alone. The city wanted Irvington, and residents of the intervening districts,
stimulated by the transportation improvements, such as the booming Tuxedo Park
area, wanted the city services.

On
June 19, 1900 the Indianapolis and Greenfield Rapid Transit Company began
interurban service between its two namesakes, barely six months after the
city's first line, to Greenwood. Comfortable, quiet, clean, cheap, and
frequent, the interurbans were instantly a huge success. Merchants grasped the
potential quickly, because the fast, extended lines could not only bring in
more customers, but also, with telephones and small package dispatch freight
service, could allow merchants to offer same- or next-day delivery. As the
century closed, commercial development in Irvington had clearly shifted to
Washington Street. (J. Marlette, EI, p825)

In
this context, with promises from the city for water connection, a fire station,
a new high school, and the development of Ellenberger Park, annexation was
approved on February 17, 1902. The city did not move fast enough, however, for
the following January the three-year-old school building also burned, fire
engines taking a half hour to reach the scene and city water as yet only
available as far as Sherman Avenue. A new city firehouse on Washington Street
was then completed that same year. (Dunn, p436; Muncie, Stories, p32, 49-51;
Ind. Woman p2; Korra p70)

When
the new school was built, it too was relocated on Washington, replacing the
Ritter house, based on the attendance of a large delegation to an Indianapolis
school board meeting in March of 1903. D.D.Pike's grocery and the Post Office
soon followed, abandoning the original town center by the railroad.(G. Winders,
A Glimpse, p25; Muncie, Stories, p53) In 1904 a second interurban ran down the
Brookville Road to Connersville, but the momentum of the Washington Street
corridor was already established. (Korra. p42)

It
was also during this period that the fate of the Irvington elite culture became
increasingly intertwined with the Disciples of Christ organization. In
1893 the local congregation had separated itself from the college by building
its own house of worship and renaming itself as the Downey Avenue Christian. (A
Century, p14) The denomination was experiencing growth in this period,
reporting twelve Marion County congregations and 4000 members in 1897. Since
1874 an important organ of the denomination, the Christian Women's Board of
Missions, had been located in Indianapolis. Among its founders and first
officers were Mrs. P.H. Jameson, whose husband served on Butler's board of trustees
into the 1890s, and Mrs. O.A. Burgess, whose husband was president of Butler
and a prominent member of Downey Avenue Christian in the 1870s. The
organization also had eminent Republican connections from the beginning, since
another founder was Mrs. William Wallace, brother of Lew Wallace and former law
partner with Benjamin Harrison. Another founder, Caroline Pearre, waited until
1893 to move to Irvington and join Downey Avenue. Also closely associated with
this group were the A.M. Atkinsons, Nancy Atkinson having been the first woman
graduate from Butler in 1856, and Alonzo, on the board of trustees in the 1890s
when they were residents of Wabash, Indiana. They also moved to Irvington and
joined Downey Avenue in 1904. (A Century; McCrae, et al p2; Ind. Woman,
p4)

In
1898 the college finally added a program for the training of ministers and
donated a small parcel by the church for the construction of a library, which
was built in 1903. The group enlisted the help of Prof. T.C. Howe, who was
active in both Downey Avenue Christian and the Disciples of Christ
organization, and who was soon to replace Butler as president of the college.
They also received a donation from the A.F. Armstrongs of Kokomo, he on the
college board of trustees and she serving with the CWBM. Land was purchased and
an impressive training building completed by 1910. (A Century; McCrae, et al
p2; Ind. Woman, p4)

In
this first decade of the twentieth century, Indianapolis grew another 64,000 or
38%, as compared to fifteen percent growth for the state as a whole, so that
Indianapolis now was absorbing twenty percent of the state's growth. In fact
only twenty counties grew more than five percent in this period, and only five
grew more than 25%, while 54 out of 92 counties actually lost population.
Indiana actually lost by migration, with 28% of those born in the state now
living in other states, and only six percent of the state being foreign born
and about 17% born in other states. The growth of Indianapolis was being fueled
by a relatively local rural to urban transformation.

The
city was also spilling out of Center Township, the ten percent that was outside
still primarily in Wayne Township, with Warren Township still a distant second,
in spite of the annexation of Irvington (Tuxedo Park was in Center
Township). The city was now also edging into Franklin, Decatur, and
Washington Townships. As for the state as a whole, this suburbanization was
selective-- even though Warren Township grew 55%, at a faster rate than the
city, Wayne and Washington Townships were growing even faster, while Decatur,
Franklin, and Pike more or less held even. The dynamic relationship of
suburbanization and annexation is also clear, for over half of the population
of Warren and Wayne Townships was now inside the city limits, even though the
city had as yet acquired only a modest portion of their areas. Surrounding this
suburbanization over eighty percent of the county remained in farms.

In
the decade of World War I, Indianapolis again grew at the same 38% clip, while
the state as a whole slowed to an 8.5% increase, the city absorbing a whopping
35% of the total growth of the state. Still only eleven percent of the city was
outside Center Township, suggesting that suburban extension was balanced by
infill and increased density. Warren Township again grew at a faster rate than
the city, also at an almost constant 54%. Again the city gobbled up this
growth, so that 66% of the township's population was now in the city.

Much
of this growth was a widening of what had been a narrow Washington Street
corridor. The development of subdivisions further back from the streetcar line
encouraged the growth of secondary arteries such as Tenth Street and Prospect
Avenue, and expanding streetcar lines encouraged even more developments. These
arteries, especially Washington, became increasingly dotted by commercial
buildings to serve the neighborhoods behind them, many of which can still be
seen. Irvington, as recognized terminus a few miles from downtown, like
Lawrence, Broad Ripple, Speedway, and Beech Grove, was developing an especially
strong commercial district to serve a rapidly growing surrounding population.
Even the rapid transit of the interurbans seemed to support this process-- as
they extended they connected these invigorated suburban towns with more distant
shoppers.

With
this growth, the rural town was a thing of the past, and the small town was
giving way to a metropolitan feel to the town. The high school students
commuted to Broad Ripple or Manual. In June, 1906, Irvington Presbyterian
Church was organized, right in the middle of the town, and by 1910 had it 240
members. (Dunn, p589) Left over corners of the town were being filled in. Less
elegant neighborhoods were developing on several sides, such as the Riley
Avenue area, west of Emerson and north of Michigan, with its tree-lined
esplanades but typically small town lots with neat rows of bungalows. Another
rapidly growing area in the teens was Irvington Terrace, located east of
Arlington and north of Washington. Warren Park was platted in 1913. Only to the
south where the Hawthorne Yards were constructed in 1917, was residential
development more restricted. (Diebold, Ch.4) Also initiated in this
era was George Kessler's master plan for the connection of city parks with each
other by boulevards along the streams. Although parts of this plan were
not fully implemented around Irvington until the depression era, when
more public labor was available, Pleasant Run's connection of the Ellenberger
area with the Christian Park and Garfield Park areas served to subtly integrate
Irvington with the rest of the city. Similarly, Emerson, Ritter, and Arlington
Avenues related Irvington to the new adjacent neighborhoods through which they
ran. (C. Ziegler, P. Diebold, EI, p867-9)

In
the 1920s the growth of Indianapolis was finally beginning to slow. Although it
still grew by a significant fifty thousand, when this somewhat smaller amount
is compared to the now larger base, the rate of growth was only sixteen
percent, the lowest in the city's history. This was only somewhat above the
state's 10.5% growth rate. Now, however, almost nineteen percent of the city's
population fell outside Center Township, with all townships being affected. The
Irvington area, if now defined as that part of Warren Township within city
limits, continued to grow even more rapidly, increasing by 79% to more than
eleven thousand. Although this was still almost 58% of Warren Township's total
growth, there was once again significant increase outside city limits,
indicating that the annexation process was slowing.